AWS AI certifications can boost tech salaries by up to 47% amid growing demand for cloud skills

Key takeaways

AWS now features five AI certifications that help professionals validate their skills.
Certified individuals command 42% to 47% higher salaries across technical, sales, marketing, and finance roles.
The certifications span foundational AI knowledge, strategic business judgment skills, and professional expertise.
Free and low-cost training resources are available through AWS Skill Builder to help prepare for certification exams.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) now offers five AI certifications, spanning foundational AI literacy, business strategy for AI adoption and scale, and professional-level expertise.

The newest addition is AWS Certified AI Business Strategist, which helps organizations identify professionals who can evaluate AI investments, apply governance, and scale adoption from pilot to production. You can register for the beta exam starting September 1, 2026.

It complements four existing AI and data certifications:

Together, the five certifications let organizations validate AI skills across foundational knowledge, business strategy, and technical implementation.

AI is transforming the way people work across multiple roles. According to a study commissioned by AWS, organizations are willing to pay a premium for professionals with AI skills. This includes salaries that are up to 47% higher for IT workers, 43% higher for those in sales and marketing, and 42% higher for those in finance, among other fields.

We are seeing a lack of expertise to help deploy, maintain, and monitor models. An AWS certification that covers these skills would carry value to me as a hiring manager, and I would make this a requirement for my team.

AWS Partner

Whether you're a student beginning to explore a career in AI, a professional in a business role with a solid grasp of AI concepts, or a machine learning (ML) specialist operationalizing AI models, AWS's new certifications can help you prove that you're well-positioned to innovate in your field.

Here's a closer look at AWS's AI certifications:

AWS Certified AI Business Strategist

Validate your business judgment and decision-making skills that take AI from adoption to scale.

This certification is designed for professionals who have been driving AI strategy without a credential that recognizes it: line-of-business leaders, sales professionals, consultants, and program managers who drive AI adoption alongside technical teams. Most AI initiatives don't stall because of the technology. They stall because organizations can't decide which use cases to fund, what governance to put in place, or how to move from pilot to production.

This certification tests portable business judgment through scenario-based questions grounded in real enterprise situations. It covers four domains: AI fundamentals and literacy, AI strategy and business value creation, AI governance and responsible AI leadership, and business readiness and AI transformation. AWS services appear as context, not as the subject being tested, so the skills transfer across organizations and industries. The exam is designed for professionals with at least six months of experience working with or alongside AI initiatives. No coding or AWS implementation experience is required.

AWS Certified AI Practitioner

Showcase your understanding of AI/ML concepts and AI technologies.

Organizations recognize that taking advantage of AI and generative AI will require a broader skill set beyond programming. This includes professionals in marketing, sales, project and product management, HR, finance, accounting, and beyond. By earning this certification, non-IT professionals can feel greater confidence when identifying opportunities that are well-suited to AI, or when collaborating with technical teams. IT professionals with limited exposure to AI/ML and generative AI can make informed decisions while leveraging their core skills when building or managing AI solutions.

AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer – Associate

Demonstrate your skills with scaling, deploying, and maintaining AI models.

Scaling AI models for real-time usage allows businesses to serve more users or achieve accurate results. This requires proficiency in ML engineering that covers aspects like optimizing model performance, managing computational resources efficiently, updating model versions seamlessly, and securing an AI solution. This certification validates an individual’s skills in developing, deploying, maintaining, and monitoring AI, ML, and generative AI solutions. These are essential skills to influence business objectives like serving millions of users daily, reducing costs, achieving faster response times, and accelerating model training.

AWS Certified Data Engineer – Associate

Demonstrate your expertise in building and managing the data foundations that power AI/ML solutions.

As organizations increasingly rely on AI and ML technologies, the demand for skilled data engineers who can build and maintain robust data infrastructures continues to grow. This certification validates expertise in critical areas like data modeling, pipeline orchestration, and quality management—foundational skills that directly impact AI/ML success. Data engineers who earn this certification demonstrate their ability to design scalable data architectures, implement efficient data pipelines, and ensure data quality while optimizing costs. These skills are essential for organizations looking to build reliable AI/ML solutions, accelerate model development, and derive meaningful insights from their data. The certification helps technical leaders identify professionals who can create and maintain the data infrastructure necessary for successful AI/ML implementations and business outcomes.

AWS Certified Generative AI Developer – Professional

Demonstrate advanced skills in building and deploying enterprise-grade generative AI solutions.

As organizations rapidly adopt generative AI technologies, the demand for developers who can deliver production-ready solutions continues to grow. This certification validates expertise in crucial areas like foundation model integration, vector database implementation, and sophisticated prompt engineering systems.

Professional developers who earn this certification demonstrate their ability to architect scalable generative AI applications that optimize costs while maintaining security and reliability. These skills are essential for organizations looking to transform customer experiences, automate complex workflows, and drive innovation through generative AI technologies. The certification helps technical leaders identify professionals capable of implementing enterprise-wide generative AI solutions that deliver measurable business outcomes.

Free and low-cost training programs to prepare for certifications

AWS offers over 330 free and subscription-based learning resources on artificial intelligence, including agentic AI and generative AI, on AWS Skill Builder, our online learning center for learners of all backgrounds and skill levels.

Each certification also has a dedicated exam preparation plan to help candidates identify gaps and practice with exam-style questions and full-length practice exams.

Visit AWS Skill Builder today to begin your certification journey and gain the AI expertise that can transform your career.

Next, read about how AWS is investing millions in student cloud and AI training.